Pueblo Revolt

Background

For more than 100 years beginning in 1540, the Pueblo people of present-day New Mexico were subjected to successive waves of soldiers, missionaries, and settlers. These encounters, referred to as entradas (incursions), were characterized by violent confrontations. The Tiguex War, fought in the winter of 1540–41 by the expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado against the twelve or thirteen pueblos of Tiwa Native Americans, was particularly destructive to Pueblo and Spanish relations. In 1598, Juan de Oñate led 129 soldiers and 10 Franciscan priests, plus a large number of women, children, servants, slaves, and livestock, into the Rio Grande valley of New Mexico.

There were at the time approximately 40,000 Pueblo Native Americans inhabiting the region. Oñate put down a revolt at Acoma Pueblo by killing and enslaving hundreds of the Native Americans and sentencing all men 25 or older to have a foot cut off. A troop of seventy soldiers was dispatched to the cliff-top Pueblo of Acoma in 1599 to punish the Pueblo for the killing of twelve Spanish soldiers by a band of warriors. After two days of warfare, almost 600 Acoma men, women, and children were seized and enslaved, with many being legally convicted and disfigured as punishment for crimes against the Spanish Crown.

The survivors fled as the Pueblo was destroyed by fire. The Ácoma Massacre would instill fear of and anger at the Spanish in the region for years to come. Franciscan missionaries were assigned to several of the Pueblo towns to Christianize the natives. Spanish colonial policies in the 1500s regarding the humane treatment of native citizens were often ignored on the northern frontier.

With the establishment of the first permanent colonial settlement in 1598, the Pueblos were forced to provide tribute to the colonists in the form of labor, ground corn, and textiles. Encomiendas were soon established by colonists along the Rio Grande, restricting Pueblo access to fertile farmlands and water supplies and placing a heavy burden upon Pueblo labor. Especially egregious to the Pueblo was the assault on their traditional religion. Franciscan priests established theocracies in many of the Pueblo villages.

In 1608, when it looked as though Spain might abandon the province, the Franciscans baptized seven thousand Pueblos to try to convince the Crown otherwise. Although the Franciscans initially tolerated manifestations of the old religion as long as the Pueblo peoples attended mass and maintained a public veneer of Catholicism, Fray Alonso de Posada (in New Mexico 1656–1665) outlawed Kachina dances by the Pueblo people and ordered the missionaries to seize and burn their masks, prayer sticks, and effigies. The Franciscan missionaries also forbade the use of entheogenic substances in the traditional religious ceremonies of the Pueblo.

Some Spanish officials, such as Nicolás de Aguilar, who attempted to curb the power of the Franciscans were charged with heresy and tried before the Inquisition. The Pueblos by and large resented the missionaries, with the Hopis in particular referring to Spanish priests as tūtáachi, 'dictator and demanding person.' In the 1670s drought swept the region, causing a famine among the Pueblo and increased raids by the Apache, which Spanish and Pueblo soldiers were unable to prevent. Fray Alonso de Benavides wrote multiple letters to the King, describing the conditions, noting 'the Spanish inhabitants and Indians alike eat hides and straps of carts'. The unrest among the Pueblos came to a head in 1675.

Governor Juan Francisco Treviño ordered the arrest of forty-seven Pueblo medicine men and accused them of practicing 'sorcery'. Four medicine men were sentenced to death by hanging; three of those sentences were carried out, while the fourth prisoner committed suicide. The remaining men were publicly whipped and sentenced to prison. When this news reached the Pueblo leaders, they moved in force to Santa Fe, where the prisoners were held.

Because a large number of Spanish soldiers were away fighting the Apache, Governor Treviño was forced to accede to the Pueblo demand for the release of the prisoners. Among those released was a San Juan ('Ohkay Owingeh' in the Tewa Language) native named 'Po'pay'. Po'pay's imprisonment and release five years before the Revolt led to his role in planning and orchestrating the events of 1680. Po'pay was considered a credible and respected provocateur by two dozen communities speaking six different languages and spread over a nearly 400-mile radius from Taos to the Hopi villages.

Revolution

Following his release, Po'pay, along with a number of other Pueblo leaders, planned and orchestrated the Pueblo Revolt. He took up residence in Taos Pueblo, about 70 miles north of the capital of Santa Fe, and spent the next five years seeking support for a revolt among the 46 Pueblo towns. He gained the support of the Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Tano, and Keres-speaking Pueblos of the Rio Grande Valley. Because of the language barrier separating the six tribes, the revolt utilized Spanish as the unofficial lingua franca.

The Pecos Pueblo, 50 miles east of the Rio Grande pledged its participation in the revolt as did the Zuni and Hopi, 120 and 200 miles respectively west of the Rio Grande. The Pueblos not joining the revolt were the four southern Tiwa (Tiguex) towns near Santa Fe and the Piro Pueblos south of the principal Pueblo population centers near the present day city of Socorro. The southern Tiwa and the Piro were more thoroughly integrated into Spanish culture than the other groups. The Spanish population of about 2,400, of which a plurality were mixed-blood mestizos, along with native servants and retainers, was scattered thinly throughout the region.

Santa Fe was the only place that approximated being a town. The Spanish could only muster 170 men with arms. The Pueblos joining the revolt probably had 2,000 or more adult men capable of using native weapons such as the bow and arrow. It is possible that some Apache and Navajo participated in the revolt.

The Pueblo revolt was typical of millenarian movements in colonial societies. Po'pay promised that, once the Spanish were killed or expelled, the ancient Pueblo gods would reward them with health and prosperity. His plan was that the inhabitants of each Pueblo would rise up and kill the Spanish in their area and then all would advance on Santa Fe to kill or expel all the remaining Spanish.

The date set for the uprising was August 11, 1680. Po'pay dispatched runners to all the Pueblos carrying knotted cords. Pedro Omtua and Nicolas Catua were the two young men. On August 8, 1680, two young men from Tesuque set out for Tanogeh (Tano villages) early in the morning.

Their first contact occurred in Pecos. Unfortunately, Fray Fernandao De Velasco was informed right away by Christian Indians that two Tewa young men had visited the war chief's house. After leaving Pecos, the two Tesuque runners continued on to Galisteo, San Cristobal, and San Marcos. Each morning the Pueblo leadership was to untie one knot from the cord, and when the last knot was untied, that would be the signal for them to rise against the Spaniards in unison.

Did You Know?

• Po'pay was a San Juan (Ohkay Owingeh) native who was among 47 medicine men arrested in 1675 for practicing 'sorcery'; three were hanged, one committed suicide, and the rest were publicly whipped before being released due to Pueblo pressure.
• The Ácoma Massacre of 1599 saw nearly 600 Acoma men, women, and children seized and enslaved, and all men aged 25 or older were sentenced to have a foot cut off.